Dealer Service

[kishigae]

Most of the cars that we had at home, all purchased pre-owned, had been serviced by independent mechanics. I've always tried to find specialists for each of the brands that we have had. One exception was a Honda dealer, who were able to do repairs on the transmission at a lower cost than what other specialists had quoted. To me, on average, the higher cost of a dealer service does not deliver higher value.

[apsilon]

The only vehicles I've had that have been dealer serviced are those that I've leased as it's the easiest option and they're just transport. The cars I care about have always been serviced by myself or a friend who owned their own mechanic business but has since retired.

The things is, as others have mentioned, modern cars are becoming too complicated to DIY service. I can't recall the exact reason as it never interested me much but my current Ranger for example, the oil change has to be completed in a very short time period or some part won't prime and could destroy the engine or something. If I hadn't see it on an owners forum I would've had no idea if I had done it myself and treated it the same as all the others where I leave it to drain for a extended period to get out as much of the old oil as possible.

Then there's the electronics, the most likely culprit of any issue in a modern car. While I have ODBII readers etc that's not enough today and even if I did ID the issue how am I supposed to fix it when even the dealer would just swap the entire module?

Yes you can service your new car at a licenced mechanic but given the above, are they going to know every quirk of that particular model? If something does go wrong, even though you can, the fact that you did have it serviced elsewhere with aftermarket filters and oil etc is likely to be raised as an issue so you'll have more arguing to do and need to prove that the parts and consumables used are within spec than if it were done by the dealer.

I'll be buying a new car mid year when the lease on the Ranger is up and TBH, I don't particularly like it but I'll likely stick with dealer servicing from here on and just stick to DIY on the MX-5.

[Mr Morlock]

apsilon comments are a very good summary. The Ranger case is known to some - but its real- the oils are so thin that a change has to be made very quickly- no going and having a cup of tea. If buying new you get the fixed price servicing which is probably a good bet.